U.S. authorities are asking European counterparts to seize about $1 billion in assets related to a wide-ranging criminal probe of alleged corruption by three global telecom companies and intermediaries close to the daughter of Uzbekistan’s president, according to court documents and people with direct knowledge of the criminal investigation.

The effort is one of the biggest recent moves by U.S. authorities targeting what prosecutors believe are the spoils of alleged corrupt activities overseas. The U.S. Justice Department...